Damn weather

I go through this every year....the weather gets nice in February and even though I know from 42 years of living in the Chicago area that this is absolutely, positively NOT going to last, I continue to get depressed when the nice weather goes away and the crappy weather returns.  So, sure enough, we had a couple of weeks of beautiful weather, I was able to run outside (which was incredible) and now it's snowing again and I just can't take it! 

So, in true form I start eating....and eating....and eating.  And yes, in the past 2 months I've managed to gain 4 lbs!  Yikes!  I had been avoiding the scale and telling myself that with all my recent increased mileage I would be fine even though I had gotten on the eating train and had missed all the stops.  Delusional....I recognize this.  When I stepped on the scale this morning I actually got back on after my shower thinking maybe it had been wrong the first time (Really?  What did I think was going to happen?).



Time to get off the eating train, stop making excuses, and start eating healthy again.  I guess this means giving up my nightly giant bowl of popcorn (oil-popped, with real butter added) that I recently started eating again, and my Ghirardelli dark chocolate caramel squares in my desk drawer that I have for "snacks."  I will get back on track!  I have to....my boot camp challenge starts in a week and a half and I don't want to start out having to lose the 4 lbs. I gained before I do anything else.  The plan is to eat fruits and veggies (and some protein -- either in the form of greek yogurt or go-tein) for a few days and try to get the cravings back under control and then I can go from there.  Ugh.....why can't this just be easy?

Fruits and veggies....good!!



Chocolate....bad. :(



Carbs anyone?

Okay, so I've been focusing so much on eating "clean" that I forgot about the need to eat some carbs if I'm going to run. I ate fruit for breakfast yesterday and a southwestern style chicken salad for lunch (essentially 0 carbs), then went home and attempted to run 4 miles.  I sucked it up with an overall average pace of 9:38 and it was harder than hell.  I wanted to stop at 3 miles but forced myself to go the extra mile...and forced myself to run that mile at just under a 9:00 pace (which means the first 3 were REALLY slow)....but it was HARD. 

When I analyzed it afterward and realized I had not eaten any carbs I remembered how important it is to watch what I eat when I'm running.  It's like starting over this spring...I feel like I forgot everything I knew about running last year.  Then, without my asking or even telling this story, my friend handed me a book last night about running a 4 hour marathon.  "It's an easy read...," she said....,"with lots of good tips and reminders on eating right and hydration."  How weird is that? 

Pictures

So...here are some starting pictures.  I'm still figuring out this whole blogging thing, so I apologize that they're all in a line...can't quite figure out how to move them around...


Needs some work - especially triceps!






Skinny...not strong...yet!





When did my butt get so flat?

My goal is to build some more muscle by the end of April.  A good friend of mine holds "boot camp" in her basement every Saturday throughout the winter.  Now that running season has started, however, Saturdays are for long runs, so she has given our group a "bootcamp" challenge.  From April 1st - May 1st we will be doing bootcamp at 5:30 a.m. on M,W,F.  We will each weigh in and take body fat % on April 1st and again on May 1st.  The goal is to lose as much body fat (while building muscle, of course) as we can in one month.

Until then I am on my own with my gym classes and running.  Oh, and of course trying to eat better!

"Good" or "Bad"

I need to stop thinking of myself as being "good" or "bad" based on my food choices for a day.  I ate relatively well yesterday but went out to lunch with friends at work and had a grilled cheese sandwich and chips (not the best choice).  Other than that, I ate only healthy foods (e.g., greek yogurt, fruit, protein shake, salad for dinner), and I worked out (3.5 miles on the treadmill at a 6.3 pace and weight machines for arms). So, when I look at my day, why do I think "I was bad yesterday."?  Making the wrong choices for one meal doesn't make me a "bad" person. This mentality is bringing me down and I need to stop!! 

I am looking into the paleo diet, but I don't want to think of it as a "diet," so I need to do some more research to see if I think I'll truly be able to make it a lifestyle.  I'm tired of always worrying about what I'm eating and I'd like it to just become a natural way of life for me. I haven't found anything that's worked yet.....maybe this will be it?

Getting started...a little about me and my journey

I am starting this blog in the hopes that it will inspire me to keep going with the journey I've been on for the past year. I decided last February to run the Chicago Marathon.  While this may not seem like that big of a feat for some people, I had never run a day before in my life!  In fact, when I started running in February of 2010, I couldn't run 1/4 mile without being out of breath and needing to walk.  But I kept at it, I found a great group of running companions (some seasoned, some newbies like me), and I accomplished my goal of running the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10.  Unfortunately, it was an extremely hot day and I didn't do it in the time that I wanted to.  Based on my training, I thought under 5 hours was a reasonable goal.  My official finish time was 5:24.  So, of course, I need to do it again (and, in fact, am signed up for this year's marathon already). 

Okay, so that's one of my goals for this year, but I have many!  Let me back up a little.  I am 42 years old, I am 5'9" and, up until I turned 40, could pretty  much eat anything I wanted and not have to worry much about exercising (and still maintain a size 6).  However, after 40 that all went downhill (along with my weight, my figure, my self-esteem, etc., etc.).  So, last January when I went to my doctor (at my top weight of 161) and begged her to give me prozac and she refused, saying that this was the beginning of pre-menopause and that I was just going to have to find a way to deal with it. That was a real wake up call for me.  I decided I couldn't possibly live the rest of my life this way (for one thing, my 4 kids and husband would likely all leave me because I had turned into such a bitch), and decided I needed to do something about it.  That's where the running comes in.  So, during training the pounds began to come off, I began to feel so much better about myself, and everything really turned around for me.  After completing the marathon, I had officially lost 25 pounds and I have managed to keep most of it off.  My weight now fluctuates between 137-140 and I am down to a size 2 or 4, depending on the cut/fit/etc. 

Several of the ladies in my running group started serious strength training over the winter, so I joined in.  I have been doing strength training about 3 days a week since November and have really noticed the difference....both in my body and in my ability to run faster!  So this is a good thing all around!  I am not only signed up for the Chicago Marathon in October, I am also signed up for 2 half-marathons...the first one is May 1st and the second is August 29th.  My goal is to complete at least one of the half-marathons in under 2 hours.  Another goal of mine is to get serious about how I eat.  I need to start eating clean and I know I will see the difference once I start, but I just can't seem to get there.  Hopefully this blog will help, as I intend to start blogging about my food choices and their impact that I see and feel. 

So that's me...kind of...I promise my next blog won't be so long, but I felt there was a lot I needed to get out there initially.